Английский с улыбкой. Брет Гарт, Стивен Ликок. Дефективный детектив

A pile of cryptograms lay on the desk. The Great Detective hastily tore them open one after the other, solved them, and threw them down the cryptogram-shute at his side.

There was a rap at the door.

The Great Detective hurriedly wrapped himself in a pink domino, adjusted a pair of false black whiskers and cried,

“Come in.”

His secretary entered. “Ha,” said the detective, “it is you!”

He laid aside his disguise.

“Sir,” said the young man in intense excitement, “a mystery has been committed!”

“Ha!” said the Great Detective, his eye kindling, “is it such as to completely baffle the police of the entire continent?”

“They are so completely baffled with it,” said the secretary (они настолько сбиты им с толку, – сказал секретарь), “that they are lying collapsed in heaps (что грудами лежат вповалку; to collapse – рушиться, обваливаться; свалиться /от удара, напряжения и т. п./); many of them have committed suicide (многие из них уже совершили самоубийство).”

“So,” said the detective, “and is the mystery one (следовательно, – сказал сыщик, – это такое загадочное преступление) that is absolutely unparalleled in the whole recorded annals of the London police (которое совершенно не имеет зарегистрированных прецедентов за всю историю лондонской полиции; annals – хроники, анналы)?”

“It is (так и есть).”

“And I suppose,” said the detective (и я полагаю, – сказал сыщик), “that it involves names which you would scarcely dare to breathe (что здесь замешаны имена, которые едва осмеливаешься произнести шепотом; to involve – вовлекать, впутывать; to breath – дышать; говорить тихо, шептать), at least without first using some kind of atomiser or throat-gargle (во всяком случае, не без того, чтобы сперва использовать что-то вроде аэрозоли или полоскания для горла).”

“Exactly (точно так).”

“They are so completely baffled with it,” said the secretary, “that they are lying collapsed in heaps; many of them have committed suicide.”

“So,” said the detective, “and is the mystery one that is absolutely unparalleled in the whole recorded annals of the London police?”

“It is.”

“And I suppose,” said the detective, “that it involves names which you would scarcely dare to breathe, at least without first using some kind of atomiser or throat-gargle.”

“Exactly.”

“And it is connected, I presume, with the highest diplomatic consequences (и связано оно, как я предполагаю, с /такими/ критическими дипломатическими последствиями; high – высокий; серьезный, решающий), so that if we fail to solve it (что если нам не удастся раскрыть: «решить» его) England will be at war with the whole world in sixteen minutes (Англия окажется в /состоянии/ войны с целым миром через шестнадцать минут)?”

His secretary, still quivering with excitement, again answered yes (его секретарь, все еще трепеща от волнения, снова ответил утвердительно).